


An Introduction to Dance

by SnubbingApollo



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Developing Relationship, M/M, Rare Pairings, Romance, as it turns out neither does dorian, felix has no idea what he's doing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:48:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29139543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnubbingApollo/pseuds/SnubbingApollo
Summary: Felix had watched Dorian go through the dance many times. He would circle around the outside of the party, watching carefully for a man to meet his eyes just right, or avoid his gaze in a tell-tale way, or smirk daringly over a wine glass. The tells were many and Dorian knew them all. He was a practiced dancer by now and he knew the proper response to each opening move. A glance at a balcony or darkened corridor where the two could vanish into privacy for a time, a matching smirk, a gentle and subtle brush of fingertips as he walked by. Felix had memorized the motions by watching from afar.
Relationships: Felix Alexius/Dorian Pavus
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	An Introduction to Dance

Felix had watched Dorian go through the dance many times. He would circle around the outside of the party, watching carefully for a man to meet his eyes just right, or avoid his gaze in a tell-tale way, or smirk daringly over a wine glass. The tells were many and Dorian knew them all. He was a practiced dancer by now and he knew the proper response to each opening move. A glance at a balcony or darkened corridor where the two could vanish into privacy for a time, a matching smirk, a gentle and subtle brush of fingertips as he walked by. Felix had memorized the motions by watching from afar. But he’d never seen the aftermath of it before. Now, with Dorian staying with him and his father for the Summer months he had the dubious diversion of seeing Dorian in the mornings after his partners left him.

He saw Dorian with marks, some from kisses and the scratching of passioned hands, but some with less obvious and perhaps more devious origins. He saw the way Dorian was distant and nearly subdued. How lonely he seemed. And lost. It was becoming clear that Dorian, while he took fleeting pleasure in his liaisons, wasn’t as fulfilled by them as he may have claimed.

And then there were the other men. Not a single one of them ever looked at Dorian twice after the nights they spent together. Some of them actively avoided him as if simply standing next to him would reveal in graphic detail everything they’d done to everyone in eyeshot. They made very little effort to disguise how little the dance had meant to them in the end. Felix never avoided looking at Dorian though, and so he saw the way the other man’s eyes lingered on them, traced the remembered lines of their bodies, and sought out their gaze as though desperate for any sign they remembered him at all.

Felix was becoming angrier with Dorian’s lovers by the hour. It was painfully obvious that not a single one of them appreciated the man or the time they’d spent with him and it was equally obvious that Dorian was taking their collective lack of regard as some sort of critique of his person. That clearly couldn’t stand but Felix was unsure how to go about correcting the gross injustice of it. He couldn’t say anything about the casual sex itself without sounding like every other criticism Dorian had heard before. No matter what Felix actually said Dorian would hear that he was shameful and his interest in other men bad and unhealthy and that Felix was appalled by the sight of it. Criticizing Dorian’s partners carried the same risk. He might hear whatever Felix said about them as a veiled complaint about himself. If he attempted to head the interactions off at the pass, or interrupt them before they could come to fruition he had no doubt Dorian would resent the interference and take it for disapproval.

This was how, sitting across from Dorian in his father’s library several hours after Dorian’s latest conquest had slunk out of his bed, Felix came to the conclusion that he must offer himself as an alternative. How to go about doing so was the problem. Felix had never shared Dorian’s attraction to the male form in general. He had in fact looked upon some of the men Dorian had separated from the herd so to speak with no small amount of bewilderment. He couldn’t imagine, for example, what precisely Dorian had seen in Hadrian Tristani. The man was as intelligent as a rock and about as well-formed so far as Felix could tell. But Dorian himself was another story entirely. He was elegant and intelligent, kind and funny and his eyes drew Felix in as if he were spelled or charmed in some fashion. He’d heard the way Dorian’s voice went low and sultry when he spoke to the men he’d chosen, how his already warm gaze grew heated and even more intense than usual. It had sent shivers down his spine every time even though he wasn’t the intended focus.

But therein lay the problem. Felix was never the intended focus of Dorian’s attention. He never had been and he wasn’t sure why or how to go about catching the man’s eye.

“Something on my face?” Dorian asked and Felix jumped, coming back to the present.

“I’m sorry?” he asked and Dorian gave him an amused look.

“You’ve been staring at me for quite a long while, Felix,” Dorian told him and Felix shifted in his chair.

“Surely that’s your fault for being so pretty,” he said and for a moment he was proud of how smoothly the flirtation had come out. Unfortunately, Dorian paused barely a moment to process the words before laughing as though they were hilariously funny.

“You’re right how terribly inconsiderate of me,” he teased and it was clear Dorian thought they were joking. Felix fought back a defeated sigh. He knew how this waltz was meant to be danced. He’d observed it enough times surely.

“Your apology is not accepted,” he said loftily. “I suppose you’ll simply have to find some other way to make it up to me.” Rather than cluing in as he may have if Felix were one of his conquests Dorian simply arched an amused eyebrow.

“Oh?” he asked. “The offense is that dire is it?” Felix hesitated a moment unsure of his next parry and Dorian’s amused expression faltered.

“Is everything alright, Felix?” he asked going so far as to close his book. Felix shook his head, waving the concern off.

“I’m fine just… you know how I get lost in my own thoughts, Dorian. I’d have thought you’d have learned to pay me no mind by now when I fall into one of my moods.” Felix said. He’d meant to flirt not convince Dorian he’d been struck by some depression.

“On the contrary, I’ve learned that those times are when I must pay you the most mind. What’s caught you up so thoroughly this evening?” Dorian asked and Felix hesitated. He couldn’t simply state it outright, surely. That wasn’t how the game Dorian favored was played. He enjoyed the chase, if Felix appeared caught from the first surely he would hold no appeal.

“If you must know I was considering Hadrian Tristani,” he said and if anything Dorian looked even more confused.

“Dare I ask why?” he asked with a baffled expression and Felix sighed, closing his own book and setting it aside.

“I was wondering what about him caught your eye,” he said and Dorian… he very rarely appeared truly taken aback by anything and it always amused Felix when something caught off guard severely enough to make his calm and collected mask slip for a moment.

“Do you really want to know?” Dorian asked, brow furrowed. “ _Why_ do you want to know?”

Because I wish to emulate it as closely as possible, Felix thought but didn’t say.

“We’ve never really spoken about it so much as around it,” is what he said instead. “I suppose it’s something about you that I don’t know. One of the only things about you I still don’t know.”

Dorian shifted in his chair watching Felix carefully. It hurt that even here in privacy and the safety of only Felix’s company Dorian felt as if he needed to watch for a trap. He wished he knew how to reassure him without sounding accusatory.

“I suppose I assumed it wasn’t something you’d be interested in discussing,” Dorian said slowly before falling into a more considering silence for a moment. “It was his arms, I think.” Felix blinked rapidly.

“His *arms*,” he said flatly and Dorian laughed a little.

“He’s really very strong, Felix. Broad and muscled,” Dorian said giving an exaggerated shiver. “He lifted me clear off the ground at one point.”

“And you… liked that?” Felix asked and Dorian gave him an expression Felix had not seen before on his face. It was teasing but there was a heat that simmered in his eyes that Felix had never had directed at _him_. He felt _pinned_ by that gaze.

“I liked it quite a bit, in point of fact,” Dorian said and his voice was low and a little softer than usual. It made Felix want to lean closer. Before he had a chance though Dorian’s countenance returned to something more neutral and he continued on. “Generally I like my partners to have a _bit_ more brains but well, how could I resist?”

“If you say so, Dorian.” Felix was sincerely glad that wasn’t Dorian’s usual type. He shuddered to think what would happen if he attempted to lift the man off his feet. Likely they’d fall over and break something. Dorian chuckled a little and Felix half expected him to pick up his book and for them to go back to reading silently, his conversational gambit forgotten. Instead, Dorian leaned forward as Felix had imagined himself doing only moments earlier.

“And what about you, hm? I remember your recent infatuation with one Claudia Archterus. What was it about her that caught your attention?” he asked. Felix felt his face heat at the memory of her. She’d been visiting Asariel with her father while he concluded some business with _Felix’s_ father and she had been, in a word, exquisite. Felix considered, trying to put it into words.

“Well, she was quite lovely,” he said and Dorian nodded, leaning a bit closer.

“Yes, and,” he prompted and Felix laughed.

“Well she had the personality of curdled milk upon closer inspection, but on the first day she was here she wore a necklace that drew the eye down the very elegant line of her neck directly to where the pendant rested right between her breasts,” he broke off with an embarrassed laugh. “I think- I think it was that. And her eyes, I’ve always been partial to eyes.”

Dorian scoffed, shaking his head.

“Breasts, of course,” he said leaning back in his chair again with a teasing expression. “I might have known.”

“They really are quite nice, Dorian,” Felix told him with a laugh. “This is the majority opinion, I assure you.”

“I never much cared for the majority opinion on anything,” Dorian drawled, before tilting his head curiously. “The personality of _curdled milk_ you say?”

“She was a horrendous gossip and never stopped talking despite not having much at all to actually say,” Felix said, sighing. “I can’t say I was sad to see her go, in the end.”

Dorian gave a hum.

“Breasts must not be so wonderful after all, if that was enough to keep you from chasing her even momentarily,” he said and he meant the words to continue their teasing banter but Felix sighed.

“I’m afraid I don’t much care for the majority opinion _there_ ,” he said. “I never saw the point of being intimate with someone you couldn’t imagine actually forming an attachment to.”

“Felix,” Dorian said regarding him with genuine surprise. “Surely you don’t mean to tell me you’ve never…” he trailed off and Felix blushed.

“It can’t be that surprising. You know what a wallflower I am,” Felix said, and if anything Dorian’s expression became more confused. Felix cleared his throat. “I know it likely sounds rather foolish but I suppose I’m just… waiting for the right person?” Dorian’s face went soft and his frown slipped to a smile but there was something sad in it that Felix couldn’t identify.

“I don’t think that sounds foolish at all, Felix,” he said and his tone made Felix’s heart flutter in his chest. Or perhaps it was the realization that he’d apparently decided without being aware of it that _Dorian_ was the right person. He wasn’t sure what to do with that. He’d never been attracted to men but… hadn’t he just called Dorian pretty and meant it? Hadn’t he just been mentally categorizing the man’s fine points and mourning that his lovers didn’t seem to appreciate them as he did?

Come to think of it, Dorian’s arms were quite nice and his shoulders broad. He was taller than Felix. He’d have to lean _up_ to kiss him and that would be…

Perhaps, very nice indeed.

“You have found yourself in a strange mood tonight,” Dorian said interrupting his musings again. “Are you sure everything is alright?”

“Perfectly fine,” Felix murmured, dragging his eyes away from the line of Dorian’s throat and back to his eyes. His rather stunning grey eyes. “My thoughts are just running a bit faster than I can chase tonight.” And apparently have been for some time.

“You would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you, Felix?”

Dorian rarely sounded so serious. Felix gave him a small smile.

“There is no one I would rather trust with my troubles, Dorian, but truly everything is fine.” Dorian hesitated and for a moment Felix thought he might press a third time, but he nodded in the end and turned back to his book, opening back to the page he had been reading before the evening became so much more interesting. This gave Felix a chance to watch him over the top of his own reading. Strong arms Felix did not have, but surely he could attract Dorian in other ways. He’d been watching the dance for quite some time, after all, he knew all the steps. He just had to put them into practice.


End file.
